There's a lot of 🍆 BIG DICK ENERGY 🍆 around having a high follower count and yes, it can be very impressive. But when it comes to followers - bigger isn't always better.
I've been there...There's a lot of pressure (whether you're a business or creator) in tracking the numbers, making goals around hitting those self-imposed milestones every 1000 - 10,000 followers. The number of times, I've watched the digits go up and down like a yo-yo or comparing my page with others. But to be honest, other than it being a flex, it really is just a vanity metric.
Later x FOHR recently published a report that shows that Nano accounts (10k followers or less) actually have higher engagement, reach, saves, and views than that of someone with millions of followers. Instead of chasing that Moby Dick of a follower count, focus on quality over quantity, and please do not resort to the following tactics...
Disclaimer: Zero judgment. We've all been there and most of us have made at least one of these mistakes, and if you're still making it, it is time to stop. 3 ways NOT TO GROW your account:
Buying followers - I actually spoke to an agency that knows of this artist, she had a decent following of 20k followers and over the year grew to over (let's say) half a million followers. Impressive, right? Not really, while her follower count is up, record sales are down 📉 and at the end of the day, that's what counts. Bot followers won't do anything unless you pay them to. So save your money
Follow for a follow - if I took a shot of tequila for the number of "follow for a follow threads" in the business groups I'm in, I'll be honest...I'd be pretty drunk. Kind of the same as bot followers except they are real people, you may be lucky to get the odd 1 out of 10 followers that may actually be interested in what you do but at the end of the day, you're inflating your account with the wrong followers
Engagement groups - Instagram can tell if you're in a pod and from what I can see on Tik Tok, manufactured engagement doesn't actually help your post. Whilst having a high number of comments, at first glance, does look good - anyone can see that they're just filler comments especially when you have the exact same people commenting each and every single time. At the end of the day - it just isn't genuine
Any and all of these bad habits only attribute to superficiality and if anything - it will affect the rest of your more important metrics but in a negative way. It's not a good look when your 50k account only has, on average, 50 likes per post. As an account, you lose your authenticity in more ways than one.
But, are they really bad for my account? Having bot or F4F followers ultimately dilutes your reach. Think of any social media like Tinder...the more people that swipe left on your content (and by this I mean, they're not interested and not engaging with your content in any single way), the less likely the algorithm is going to push you out. If your content isn't doing well among those that have "supposedly" followed you (whether they're real or fake) - the algorithm is taking it to mean it won't do well with those who don't.
The takeaway: If someone chooses (willingly) to follow you, it's because they are your ideal client/customer/fan - they like the shit you put out there. They will engage because they want to and the content you're putting out is right for them. That said, there are still chances of flighty followers who will unfollow you just as quickly as they followed you - but that's okay, think of it as the trash taking itself out.
So instead of focusing on that big number up top, reinvest that time and energy into your content and the numbers that actually matter: engagement, saves, shares, connection, and conversion.
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